This specialized education had been her plan of gratitude. Only by making herself efficient in a kindred field, she felt, could she ever be a real "pardner" to Jim; only thus could she repay, in some measure, the generosity of the old prospector. She had long realized the unselfishness of the man who had stayed winter after winter in the frozen North, denying himself the rude pleasures of a mining camp in order to help "Bull's little gal."
Ever since Jim had made his famous strike, as a result of the map which had been sent to her by her father's murderer, Jameine had regarded herself as the heiress of a dream mine, but a dream which might, some day, come true. For her own sake, as well as Jim's, she had read and studied as much as she could of Alaskan conditions.
It was she who finally disclosed to Jim that the Russian seal-poachers were probably at fault in chasing him from his strike, and only wanted to get rid of the inconvenient witness. Thus she had reawakened the prospector's lagging interest in his find, but lacking the large store of capital necessary to exploit the mine, she could do nothing. Jim had used up all his savings in going from town to town trying to interest a big investor and had finally entered Owens' coal mine in order to get a little stake again.
Wizard Juneau was amazed at the extent of mining knowledge shown by this girl shipmate, and he had spent the greater part of the voyage from Sitka in imparting to her some of the secrets distilled from his long experience in frozen mining. He had brought on board the Bunting many of the publications of the U. S. Geological Survey, and of the Bureau of Mines, annotated by himself. He had brought, also, a number of crude maps of half-explored territory, either drawn by his own hand or by old prospectors, which maps and charts were among his most prized possessions.
"Some of these," he explained, "were made by Alf Brooks,[8] one of the nerviest explorers that the U. S. ever sent out. I've been with him on more than one reconnoissance survey. And some were made by experts on the U. S. Revenue Cutter Bear.[9] I sailed on her two seasons."
[8] For the Alaskan explorations of Brooks ("Rivers") see the author's "The Boy with the U. S. Survey."
[9] For the Behring Sea work of the Bear, see the author's "The Boy with the U. S. Lifesavers."
"And do you think, Mr. Juneau, that this island of Uncle Jim's is on the American side of the line?"
The "Wizard" pursed his lips with an expression of doubt.
"It's a toss of the dice," he said. "Ingalook, the easternmost of the Diomede Islands, where Jim found that piece of gold-bearing quartz, is sure American territory. I don't take kindly to Ingalook, though. There'd be trouble, there, in trying to install proper mining and crushing devices. There's no landing place on that isolated granite dome standing forlornly out of the sea, except for seals, polar bears, or crazy prospectors like Jim, there.